Sherlock Holmes is one of the most well known detectives. So many movies, TV shows and games are based on the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and his trusted companion Dr. Watson. But will Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened will be a game Sherlock Holmes fans Want to play ?

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is a bit of a departure from the more kid friendly games and what I mean by that is that the previous Sherlock Holmes games were pretty tame compared to this or even the later games in the series.

Story wise this is an interesting title. Sherlock Holmes has to solve a supernatural case which involves the legendary Cthulhu created by H.P. Lovecraft. Some illegal immigrants go missing and soon wind up dead in crime scenes that look like ritualistic sacrifices and it's up to you to solve the mystery.

As I stated before this is a departure from the more teen friendly games. This game has this unsettling mood. The atmosphere in every location feels great even though the graphics don't look that good.

Locations range from Asylums, to swamps in New Orleans and abandoned light houses and you can explore everything at your own pace and there is a lot of stuff to find.

Now originally this game only had the first person mode, but the remastered edition has an added third person point and click mode that helps out in some locations which have bad textures (I'll get to that in a moment)

Graphics look outdated. Some of the items you need to pick up blend in with the environment. Some of the lip syncing is just hilarious when the character models look like dead people. Some of the environments looks empty, but that's only for a second.

Now I want to cover the most important aspect of a Sherlock Holmes game and that's the puzzles. After playing Sherlock Holmes Mystery of the Silver Earring I was put off with the illogical puzzles. This time I was surprised with how smart the puzzles actually were. Now there was some hard puzzles and some of them are kind of stupid, but mostly really smart and well thought out puzzles.

Voice acting ranges from well done to incredibly horrible. Some of the voice acting is just incredibly funny. When they talk about serious situations all I did was smile at the voice acting.

If you do plan on playing the game I do recommend saving quite frequently and backing up your save file, cause there is a bug where you can lose your save file. Apart from that there's not many other bugs.

The game took me 8 hours to finish and apart from the one run of the game you will do, there's not much replay value as nothing really changes.

In the end I have to say I loved my time with Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened and I might say it's the best Sherlock Holmes game I've played to date. The interesting story and puzzles are great in this game, because I felt they were the biggest flaw in The Mystery of the Silver Earring. If you like Adventure games, Sherlock Holmes and you like the work of H.P. Lovecraft you will love this game.

Final Rating:8/10 - Worth to consider buying it.

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I've been enjoying the modern reimaginings of Sherlock on CBS (Elementary) and the even better BBC series. So, when the Sherlock collection went on sale on Steam, I decided to give it a try. Of course, this game portrays the original Sherlock Holmes.

This is mostly typical point-and-click adventure fare and puzzles, with a little more than the usual pixel hunting due to the forensic nature of the story. For a game created in 2006 and then "remastered" in 2008, the production values are low, but the voice acting is pretty good. There are a few brain teasers thrown in, which can be difficult, but there is a built-in hint system. The game requires a little bit of deductive reasoning, but it falls short of making you feel like Sherlock. All too often, you gather all the evidence only to have Holmes pull it all together in a cut scene. The story is kinda slow, but it comes together nicely in the end. All in all, not a bad game, but not great either.

This is my third Sherlock Holmes Adventure From Frogware and let me get straight to the point: this was quite unexpected.This version is a Remastered and modified edition from the original game so it presented itself as a classic Point and Click Adventure Like its predecessor but it still keeps the option to allow you play it in First Person View, which along the adventure it really proved to be useful to move fastly and to notice places, items or other particular useful details.Aside From that the thing that really got me unprepared was the total tone change: it's not a secret, in this adventure Our Holmes And the Good pal Dr. Watson will investigate murders and disappearences that will lead to a cult that worship Chtulu himself. So obviously this adventure won't be a classic adventure in the high society London (well, at least not entirely), but the settings and the character will be quite dark and even disturbed sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I don't get impressed at all by anythig I saw here, it was simply unexpected.Anyways this dark tone is a good innovation, but not the only one. The Sherlock Holmes adventures seem to be improving title by title. The interface is now polished and intuitive (not over-decorated) and the brief quiz has been resized to be a single question to be answered by writing the answer (nothing too complicated, it usually is a thing or a name -spoilerless-). A good innovation is the clever use of the map, which can be used to move fastly from one place to another. Unfortunately I've still noticed few issues here and there with the hot zones while using the classic point & click interface, but actually nothing that bad. Another thing that often annoys me is that you need to accomplish every action to move ahead or to allow an action prior to move ahead. I know it's right to have Sherlock analyze everything and talk with everyone, but some riddles are easy enough to be solved before they're supposed to be (an example? The lemon plant).I enjoyed the story n this chapter even though I've missed the final Sherlock monologue where the guilty is revealed (though it's fine in a Dark adventure like this, and the One behind all is revealed at the very end, and I appreciated the consequences of this adventure).

+++PROs+++

CHTULU. This chapter's story revolves around Chtulu's myth, hence the cult, the temples and locations you'll encounter or visit are quite disturbing and this unusual setting is very innovative for a Sherlock Holmes Adventure.

INTERFACE. From this chapter the interface is not over-decorated and is now intuitive as it was supposed to be. It features also the orginal First Person View and a map system that allows travelling from place to place faster.

---CONs---

ACTIONS REQUIRE ACTIONS. I know it's right to have Sherlock analyze everything and talk with everyone before you move on, but some riddles are easy enough to be solved before they're supposed to be so I don't get the sense in preventing certain actions.

BottomLine at the Top: The third entry in Frogware games' Sherlock Holmes series has some good aspects that Arthur Conan Doyle fans will appreciate but would otherwise be a weak 3D point and click game that lacks substance. Decent story, mediocre graphics, and a very unfulfilling ending. Recommended only to fans of the later Sherlock Holmes titles that are looking for something to satiate their urge for more of these kinds of games.

-------------------------------------Pros--------------------------------------Story does feel very Sherlock Holmes-y, there are a few points where the mystery starts to feel really intriguing. (Later entries in the series pulls this off better but I get the feeling this is the first one where Frogware started perfecting it). The overall Holmes/Cthulhu mythos mash up piqued my interest as a big fan of both genres. (Note: Those expecting a supernatural thriller should keep in mind that the solution in Doyle's stories was never ghosts. This game stays true to that mantra which fans of Sherlock Holmes will appreciate but fans of Lovecraft might find lacking. It is, first and foremost, a Holmes game.) -Some good quality of life features: Double click run, map allows for fast travel, lots of save slots, object highlight function.-Get to play as both Watson and Holmes.-Detailed and tiered in game hint system (which ends up being crucial)-Loads fast on modern systems.

-------------------------------------Meh.--------------------------------------Issues with getting the game to run properly the first time. Had to reinstall Nvidia’s old PhysX engine drivers to get it to work. Once that’s all set it runs well even on a moderately powered machine.-Main menu design screams "low budget 2000's indie studio title". -This remastered version allows you to play in 3rd person instead of the default 1st person. It ends up feeling tedious to use the 3rd person version so I stuck to 1st for the most part.

-------------------------------------Cons--------------------------------------Graphics seem dated even for the era in which this game was released. Environments feel stale (streets feel bared and sterile) and lifeless. A notable exception is the water physics, which look surprisingly good for a 12-year-old game. Textures quality varies from poor to acceptable.-The lack of in game dialogue interaction with Watson was a huge miss in my opinion. It really would have brought a sense of immersion to the world to ask him his opinions more often like in the Stories/movies/tv shows. As well as offering a more natural way of bringing hints in game without having to revert to the menu-based hint system. During actual game play his primary response is "What do you make of this Holmes?". They could have at least recorded like 3 or 4 default responses but it's just this one over, and over, and OVER AGAIN. His only other response is "we must act quickly Holmes" which made me say out loud "No S*** Sherlock how ‘bout some insightful commentary there Watson?!?" on more than one occasion. -The reuse of prerecorded responses by Holmes is also irritating and feels like a cheap cop out to save on having to write dialogue or pay the voice actors more. -More than a few puzzle designs are stupid. -Cutscenes character animations are laughably "stiff" and just plain poor. Lack of music during some of them just makes it even more awkward.-Ending is incredibly anti-climactic and the final puzzle was just godawful. We are left being told that we stopped a great evil but reflecting on the whole story it just feels like it built up to nothing.

At 7.5 hours game play for the regular $10 asking price it's not a terrible value but due to the so-so quality of the overall game I only recommend you pick this one up on sale. I originally played the last two entries in the Frogware series "Crimes and Punishments" and "The Devil's Daughter" first. They are both excellent games that I highly recommend any mystery adventure fan play. This title seems to be the first that incorporates mechanics that would later be refined by the time "Crimes and Punishments" and "The Devil's Daughter" were released. If you are a fan of either of those, I would say give this one a shot but keep your expectations low.

I started Frogware's Sherlock Holmes series in chronological order of the games. Currently, this is my favorite Sherlock Holmes game. I have always been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft in addition to Sherlock Holmes. The only way to make it even better is to include H. G. Wells to the mix, but I digress. This game set the standard of how the rest of the Sherlock Holmes Adventure Games are presented and produced. The story walks a fine line between the two worlds of H.P. Lovecraft and Sherlock Holmes and surprisingly the resolution is satisfy for both worlds. The adventure felt like Sherlock Holmes was on the case while the Lovecraftian themes never felt like a gimic. When I finished I sat back and pondered if the Lovecraftian themes were real or not; which is how Lovecraft should make the reader, or in this case the player, feel.

This is also the fist Sherlock Holmes game where I took extensive notes with a pen and paper. I am not saying that the game presents a bad summary of the clues or even that you need to take physical notes, but I found that it was more enjoyable when I did. I never felt, atleast to my memory, that the game was unfair with its puzzles or logic.

Furthermore, refrences will appear from this game to the next game in the series, Sherlock Holmes - Nemisis. So to fulfill that experiance you should probably play this one.

In summary: This game does a fantastic job combining H.P Lovecraft and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's worlds. This is a rare game which uses Lovecraft correctly, which will please any Lovecraft fans. Buy this game if you are a fan of either litature. I also suggest this game to individuals who would like to try Frogware's Sherlock Holmes Adventure series but are not sure which game to start with. This game is a great Point and Click game with a strong atmosphere. I at this time of writing palyed this game for 9 hours, and after writing this review I want to replay this game from the beginning.

This game has too many flaws to be recommended on its own. I bought it as a bundle containing a lot of Frogware's Sherlock Holmes and enjoyed it thinking that the other games were enough for the price I payed but I wouldn't pay for it on its own.

The reason I don't think it is worth buying itself is the badly executed gameplay mechanics. Through the game you have to switch between third person and first person. A lot of the first person perspective gameplay is just too difficult. The areas are huge. I don't think many people like pixel hunts in giant 3D environments.. There is a hotspot highlighter but not all hotspots highlight depending on which perspective you are playing from. You also have to get really really close to some of the hotspots to make them highlight.

The trigger mechanism of the game is also annoying. The game will wait until you have located all the hotspots in a certain area before the plot can advance and some of these aren't very relevant to the plot and can be really hard to find.

In theory you can consult the game's built in hint system but it reveals more spoilers than help.

This is all a shame as the plot and character scripts are really, really, good. Playing it with a walkthrough close to hand I actually really enjoyed the story and some of the puzzles which didn't require too much hunting in huge 3D locations.

If you happen to be buying a bundle of Sherlock games then 'Testament', 'Silver Earring', or 'vs Arese Lupin' are worth about $10 each on their own so don't be put off by the inclusion of 'Awakened' but I wouldn't buy it alone.

Sherlock Holmes - The Awakened is your classic Sherlock Holmes game (good, but not phenomenally so) which for once is centered around a Lovecraftian story setting (absolutely fantastic).

The Awakened, in my personal opinion, was the last "so-so" game before the series started picking up the pace to become exceptionally well made with the vs Jack The Ripper (also a fantastic setting) entry. Personally, I am a huge fan of anything Lovecraftian, so I was definitely a sucker for the story this was able to deliver.

Not the best adventure of all time, but the experience boils down to playing in one of the coolest universes mankind has ever thought up, which is quite a redeeming feature in my book and makes me completely oversee flaws like having to do an exceptional amount of leg work to wander around quite obviously scattered hotspots with little ways to interact with the game world in the first place. The investigations and having to come to conclusions by one's own from time to time as well as an inbuilt hint system with up to a dozen hints before the game just simply tells you what to do make all of these flaws more than bearable though and allow this game to be a rough little adventure gem. More than worth the asking price within the Sherlock Holmes collection.

The setup sounds great, Holmes & Watson inexplicably drawn into a world of fantasy horror... Except the follow-through is a boring and groan inducing embarrassment. It has little to do with either the works of Conan Doyle or Lovecraft and the tonally devoid hot mess that follows is evident of that. Looking at it simply as a game it's a frustrating series of clumsy and broken puzzle mechanics; if you've come for a narrative or engrossing world though then you're really in trouble. The plot attempts to string together kidnappings in England, an asylum in Switzerland, a swamp in New Orleans and finally a lighthouse in Scotland using some vague Cthulhu cult to no definable end. It's all so disjointed you realize about halfway through that it's not going anywhere. Professor Sullivan has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo but nowhere in the narrative is Innsmouth (home to The Esoteric Order Of Dagon) or any of the creatures of Lovecraft's mythos. Cthulhu himself is never even mentioned by name! So what you're left with is less a sect and more a social club that stuff dead people full of squid and call it a herald of the apocalypse. It's just incredibly stupid. It doesn't work as a mystery, it doesn't work as fantasy horror, and it just plain doesn't work as a game.

The Awakened is a great starting point for players new to the Holmes series. In this installment, the balance between puzzles, dialogue and hunting for clues has been perfected, and the new in-game hint system *usually* has the answers if you're stuck. There's been a pretty good graphical update, and the addition of the first person camera angle has totally removed the previous games' problems of pixel hunting and difficult controls. I personally encountered no technical problems playing on Windows 8.1.

If you're a fan of the classic Sherlock Holmes, Awakened may not be for you. The story has a lot of paranormal elements, which may be a turn off for some players. However, I am typically not a fan of paranormal mysteries and I was still able to enjoy the game. Each location has a totally different atmosphere, so in a way there's something for everyone. The mystery is interesting and intriguing without being convoluted, and at around 8 hours the length feels just right.

This game is a bit of a departure from typical Holmes, as it mixes in a Lovecraftian element that gives the story an unearthly taste. I don't have a problem with that, but if you're not really a fan of sort of "out there" paranormal storie, you might not appreciate this game. However, even if you're not a Lovecraft fan, you might be engaged enough with the story to enjoy this too.

Gameplay is pretty standard pointy-clicky fare. As in most of these styles of game, the puzzles range from very basic to ridiculously difficult, but thankfully there is an in-game hint system that does help a lot to keep frustration to a minimum. The only truly difficult part I found was a point when you're in a dark area with a lantern and must find all the clues to progress; the last "piece" was very difficult to locate in the dark.

For mystery/detective fans who also are fans of Agatha Christie, there is a delightful "easter egg" partway through the game. As a Christie and Doyle fan, I squealed like a wee happy baby. I won't ruin it here, just keep your eyes and ears open for it. :D

My single real complaint (and it's just a nitpick really) is with the sound; there's a point where there are a lot of people using alert/warning whistles and they were piercingly loud (and over and over and over again, ouch my head). I didn't even have the sound up that loud but I thought my eardrums were going to rupture. Just a minor thing to keep in mind; you may want to keep the volume lower or even off when you hit that section.

So go grab the Sherlock Holmes Collection where you can get all six of the games at once and save a good bit of money. They're definitely worth it for fans of Doyle's Holmes.